Trials of Love
by Wicked R
Summary: Delena, Datherine, Dabekah..sort of..I need them all to prove their love for Damon. So the choice is his.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Actus Reus

Disclaimers: I don't own any supernatural powers or anything else to do with TVD. It would be a completely different show if I did.

Genre: hurt/comfort, big time.

Summary/Set: 401ish. What the Founders' vampire cages are for and how they will all cope with being captured.

Pairing: Delena, Datherine, Dabekah..sort of..

Stefan was running though the forest at full speed, pushing himself off a trunk of a tree once in a while to propel himself in the right direction. At first, it was the screams of a man and a woman, a family even he had heard and he wasn't sure if babyvamp Elena could stop herself from draining them all, but then she knew it was her who was in trouble when several male voices and fire arms got mixed into the sounds. Stefan could only blame himself for everything, leaving Elena in the sinking car for longer, trusting her when she had claimed she got a hold on her blood cravings, when he concentrated too much on tutoring her on vampire issues and contemplating his role in what has happened to take enough notice of the Founders' Council's renewed methods of vampire clearance. He saw Elena going down and by this time he had past caring what happens to him. The vampire hunters had no trouble emptying their wooden cartridges into him and he put up no resistance when they approached to inject him with vervain. At least he'd be with Elena whereever they were going to take them and whatever they were intending to do with them.

He sat up groggily to find Rebekah frowning at him, kneeling on the floor a couple of feet away. It would've been hard to move further as Stefan found they were in a very cramped little cell with the barred window on the top of the ceiling. He blinked, just to make sure it wasn't the vervain's side-effect that he saw double, having trouble telling Elena apart from Katherine as the younger woman's hair was so tussled from her previous adventures in the woods it was hard to tell which one was naturally curly. One of them however, had Damon's head on her lap. "What happened?" He asked, finally taking stock of his brother's appearance, grey and lifeless, but presumably without the sticking out veins that would've meant he was staked in the heart, although it was hard to tell in the dim light. He scrambled next to them to join the women positioned around his brother's unanimated body.

Rebekah rolled her eyes, "and the general consensus is that it is vampires who are evil and like to torture others in intricate ways. Sure, that'll be right. I'm an amateur!"

"Does either of you know exactly what happened?" Elena asked, herself had wakened up not so long ago.

Katherine sighed, "they are testing us. Apparently Bill Forbes wrote an essay to the Council about how vampires are not necessarily evil as default, so they're trying to find out how much love can motivate us. They put me in a contraption with a stake just brushing my chest, attached to some kinda system of weights to push it into me unless Damon tipped the balance of the weight by drinking an entire container of vervain to halt the mechanism."

"How much vervain?" Stefan rubbed his face in frustration, only the slightest bit surprised to find that Damon would go to such extremes to save Katherine.

"About half a pint," Katherine gulped, squeezing Damon's inert fingers in doting exasperation, "how much resistance did he manage to build up?"

"He could've only been taking a maximum of two ounces a day tops," Stefan judged, going by his own experiences with getting used to vervain.

"So he's just out of it, right?" Elena pressed the other doppelgänger, "we just need to wait till it gets out of his system."

"I don't know..I hope so," Katherine winced, "ask the original model," she looked at Rebekah reproachfully. Elena and Stefan eyed the oldest vampire in the room with incomprehension. The blonde held a hand on Damon's leg in concern, annoying everyone with her expression.

"You're going to pretend now that you care after having tortured him yourself not so long ago?" Stefan growled, riled.

"That was only for fun," Rebekah defended herself, "you don't even recognise fun when you see it anymore?"

"Everyone! The topic at hand!" Elena pressed further to find out more about Damon.

Rebekah sighed dramatically, "those Council members. We should've taken them more seriously. They got hold of the white oak stakes."

"And just how does that concern us?" Elena jeered, "or Damon?"

"Cause dearest Damon Salvatore is the epitome of noble-minded, honourable and foolishly idealistic!" Katherine cried.

"Wrong century perhaps Katherine?" Stefan shook his head at her.

"Wrong person perhaps, Stefan. It seems like you don't know your own brother," Katherine claimed.

Elena rolled her eyes, "what happened to Damon!" She shouted at them in exasperation.

"He did it for me too.." Rebekah whispered, looking with admiration and adoration to Damon.

"Yes, basically," Katherine agreed, "they waited till Damon was coming to and the burning in his belly abated a little and he stopped screaming in agony and then they put him into the contraption with Rebekah."

"And he drank the vervain for you," Elena finished looking at Rebekah with an excessive dose of jealousy and anger, magnified by her new vampire status, "get away from him!" She pushed Rebekah out the way, taking up a similar postion to Katherine's and mirroring her rubbing, soothing actions on his other arm and shoulders. "What if we made him sick and got rid of the vervain that way?"

"We tried that. It only made him lose more blood. And don't touch his stomach. That hurts him too."

"Is there anything we can do?" Elena looked up at the other doppelgänger for advice. She was not angry with her, rather felt a sort of kinship given both their ill-fated connection to the Salvatores.

"He needs blood," Katherine shook her head, but that didn't stop her from fingering the unconscious vampire's matted locks, stroking his face that maybe offered him some sort of comfort, maybe not. Elena wavered, helpless. If she could only hold his head instead of Katherine, maybe she wouldn't be feeling so useless, but for the moment, she didn't feel entitled enough to try to make Katherine shift. Nor as if she could anyway. So Elena resolved to sitting by and hoping it was her those soulful, beautiful orbs would turn to when he opened his eyes.

Tbc


	2. Rearward

Chapter 2: Rearward

Elena wasn't coping too well with hunger. It was easier for the older vampires, but as a novice, it had only been a handful of times she had fed on human blood and her body was craving it as if it still would've needed it to bring herself to completion. Their cell was so small that she could only step six times to cover the length of it without stepping on someone, but that didn't stop her from pacing up and down.

"Is there any chance you could calm your girlfriend?" Katherine snapped at Stefan. Her attention was focussed on Damon, who had started moving a little, his head thrashing as he gave weak moans and agonised, drawn out groans, making everyone ill at ease. "Hold her down."

Stefan looked at Katherine, uncomprehending. Elena had been rather insufferable of late, but it wasn't like she needed to be confined even more than she already was. But when Katherine took to biting her own wrist, he understood and moved closer to the youngest vampire.

"What is she doing!" Elena turned round, focusing on where the fresh smell of blood came from.

"You sire's blood is more likely to have healing properties than any other vampire's, but of course not as good for us as a human's," Rebekah explained why the Petrova fed Damon with the only kind of blood she had at her disposition.

"Then why didn't you do it earlier?" Elena accused.

"Because I need my own blood, don't you think?" Katherine rolled her eyes at her imitation, "besides, he couldn't have felt the pain as much as now when he was completely out of it.

"You will need your strength for later," Rebekah agreed with the older Petrova doppelgänger, "but guess what, original blood has even better healing properties," she copied Katherine's actions by offering up her wrist to Damon as well. The dark haired vampire didn't object, although by his slow sucking pace and grimacing he was making when taking bigger gulps you could be sure his throat was still been burning as an aftereffect from the vervain. Inevitably though, his eyes fluttered open a little later, blinking from one of his two blood donors' troubled faces to the other. Elena didn't dare to approach at the moment, the proximity of blood was bad enough in itself.

"How you feeling?" Stefan asked concerned.

"As if an explosion would take place in my stomach every second instant," Damon croaked, but he managed to sit up with the help of the two women holding onto him. His gaze wondered to Elena's direction, but he didn't comment on her presence. "We have to get out of here," he added however, the determination becoming more powerful in him now that more people's lives he cared about was at stake too.

"We have tried that Damon," Rebekah explained patiently, "Katherine had tried to fit through the grates and we have given a shot at both attacking and compelling the guards when they came in, you know that bit. None of it ended well. Do you have any other ideas?"

"Send a message?" Damon suggested.

"Is there a way of sending a message without a phone? Cause I'm pretty sure those were taken off everyone, not just us before we were brought in," Elena looked round to see nodding faces, "and to who anyway?"

"Some vampires sometimes establish a compel bond with a human that could work for short periods," Rebekah had to tutor Elena in vampirism a bit.

"I don't have that kind of a bond with anyone just now. I'm not into humans these days. The last time I did that was.." Katherine waved in Stefan's direction, "well, a long time ago."

"I've been concentrating on people more durable than a human as well lately," Rebekah sighed.

Damon shook his head as well, "not done that either since Caroline got me out the basement cell."

Elena was not asked because of her age, but every pair of eyes turned to Stefan, hoping against hope that his ripper phase had some positive outcome. "I'm afraid not," he had to crush everybody's prospects.

"Then we'll send a message the old fashioned way," Damon asserted, "you do have your diary with you, don't you?"

"That, I do," Stefan pulled the little leather case booklet out his pocket and gave it over to Damon, who haphazardly tore a random page out and crumpled it into a ball. "How far is your fang-dangled original throw?" He asked Rebekah.

The blonde shrugged, "could be a few miles, given a good chance."

"How much of a good chance is it through those bars up there on the ceiling?" Damon suggested.

"Not a bad one I suppose," Rebekah concurred.

"In that case, could you at least dab a few of these pages in your blood and then give them your best throw? If any vampire or other supernatural cares we're missing, they should be able to trace the smell."

"I guess we could give it a shot," Stefan agreed.

Tbc


	3. Cavum

Chapter 3: Cavum

The captive vampires managed to get rid of five pages of Stefan's diary dipped in blood when vervain darts came through the iron bars of the door. There was a shower of them, hindering their attempts to catch all of those in the air before it hit them. Weakened, none of them stood a real chance.

It was only Rebekah who was still alert when the group of wards, vampire hunters and some of the braver council members burst in wearing commando gear and flaunting a number of weapons able to kill vampires.

Stefan was vaguely aware of the original grabbing Damon's unconscious body, ready to defend him with her teeth, but the guards took him instead, his feet dragging down a long corridor. However, Stefan didn't come to full consciousness and in control of his senses till minutes later when he found himself strapped into a contraption facing a still unconscious Elena on the other side. From Katherine's description from earlier, he recognised it was the same device Damon had previously been in, with the vervain container at his mouth and a stake pressing into Elena's chest, at the moment only scratching her skin.

Through a voice coming from above, instructions of how to keep Elena alive followed in case he didn't know. Easy then, drink the vervain, burn his insides out, just like Damon had. The first few gulps were easy, he was used to as much as that. Sweat broke out all over his body soon though, his whole body shaking with the effort of trying to ignore the pain. Soon his stomach started to feel as if a wooden log would've been driven through his midsection over and over and without stopping at that. Panicking he would pass out and will not be able to complete the task, he paused, concentrating with every fibre of his body to stay awake. He started to realise he had done it all wrong. Damon could've only done it in one way only without losing consciousness given the effects of this amount of vervain, and that could've only been by gulping it down in one go. Hyperventilating, he pressed his lips to the bottle, readying himself while noting from the corner of his eyes that Elena was starting to rouse with a scream his ears were no more able to register as the stake penetrated her ribcage since Stefan was not drinking away from the weight out of the bottle fast enough. Panicking, he gulped, just to find that with his burnt throat, he was no longer able to swallow. He panicked, gathering as much of the liquid in his mouth as possible, but it spilled out, his lips aflame. It dripped down on sensitive scales under his feet and he knew it was over. Unless their captors had a heart, Elena was dead. He messed up. The mechanism turned its wheels without mercy, Elena cried out once more and for a moment, Stefan didn't understand how she was still able to emit sounds with the stake in the middle of her chest. But then he followed her gaze and marvelled. His last thought in this world was how their capturers were able to trick them all to believe the stake in the contraption would automatically kill the person on the other end and not the one drinking the vervain.

Unmerciful, the faceless, masked soldierly men filed in to drag the body of the ashen vampire out and gagged Elena, forcefully quietening her sobs. Damon! Oblivious to his brother's death, it was Damon's turn again in the device and Elena was not ready to see her other love being staked to death in front of her. With the tape over her mouth, she couldn't even warn Damon that the threat was in entirety to his person. She just had to hope Damon's love was strong enough for him to drink the vervain for her sake and hope against hope that even though he had been tortured just a little while ago, he still had enough strength left in him to conform to plan. Her eyes like saucers, she stared at him shivering in fear. Never in a million years did she expect Damon to smirk at her, strengthening up determined to down the whole bottle down without as much of a waver. He blinked, his closing eyelids trying to still see her for a moment, joyous that as far as he knew he saved her once more. Then the pain in his guts made him succumb to the darkness pulling him under.

The young vampire was pulled out unceremoniously and tied to a pole in the corner, then the masked figures placed Damon into the place Elena had been moments ago. The conductors of the vampire love experiment retreated just so the other door could open and Rebekah and Katherine could be let in. "What's happening here?" Inquired the original, in half a mind, but hesitating to untie Damon and Elena.

"Damon Salvatore's proven to be eminent unbeastly qualities will not be tested anymore," came the computerised voice from above, "he could be released a free man according to his merits." There were some crackling sounds, and then, "this is James Johnson, current head of the council given Mr. Salvatore's no longer qualifies. You have my word though that he will be released." The voice changed back to the female computerised monotone, "the same rules apply to all of you. Volunteer to save Mr. Salvatore by drinking the vervain, prove the existence of strong positive emotions in yourselves and join him when being released."

Elena could only shake her head at the other two women, unable to tell them of the trick in the machine. Both Katherine and Rebekah misunderstood however, both assuming Elena wanted to stop them from taking the vervain drinking position because she was the one who would've liked to take it. One look to Damon's white face, marred with anguish even unconscious and they both stepped forward. It was only fair as he had done it for them before.

The machine powered down however before anyone could execute their intentions. Gunfire and explosions shook the building, even the light went out. Aided by vampire vision, Rebekah now jumped to catch Damon in her arms, now that the electronic restraints keeping him up were not in place. Katherine released Elena, she might've been useful if they were in for a fight. But there was no need. Their liberators arrived in the form of the unlikely alliance of Kol, Bonnie, Meredith, Jeremy and Caroline.

"They've killed Stefan!" Elena let out after having been ungagged.

Tbc


	4. Approximate

Chapter 4: Approximate

Elena was standing in the hallway in front of the closed door of Stefan's room, pondering on the fact that it was shut. Stefan never closed it when he left, he didn't see the point and now that Katherine was taking him to the Salvatore's tomb, the room probably looked like he had last left it. Yet someone took the trouble to pull it over. Elena supposed it was Damon and she felt the exact same way. It could be years before she could cope going into that room. Her thoughts turned to the other Salvatore, her gaze followed too, towards the equally closed door of Damon's room. As if pulled on string, her legs took her into that direction, they needed each other more than ever. She pushed the handle down quietly and peered through to find Damon lying on his side on the bed with his back turned to her. Elena stalked in, doubting he was asleep, but not wanting to disturb him if he was trying to get his energy back. Gently, she lay down next to him, turning the same way and putting an arm round his upper body. The older vampire didn't react in any way and Elena realised, it was making her more and more uncomfortable with every passing moment. So much has happened, she didn't have time to process any of it, probably not much at all since Stefan came back to Mystic Falls with Klaus. It was all so confusing, it would also probably take years to find out how she really felt about it all. One thing was sure, that there was a vast emptiness in her chest, one that she knew only Damon's voice, touch or understanding could make better. But Damon himself had his extrafair share of grief, brokenheartedness and pain. He had to be her rock, she needed to know he still was. "Damon?" She whispered, rubbing his arm clutched at his chest. "Have your insides healed?" She started with the easiest question.

Damon took a deep breath, as if raising from the bottom of an abysmal pit, "I'm not sure, Elena."

"How can you be not sure?" The girl sat up, feeling very implicated, "you should be able to know, right? If it hurts."

He turned round quickly, startling her, "because I don't know how much of it is physical! Please tell me you don't want me to shut it all off. To not go and savage the world and not care," he begged, voice wavering, eyes bloodshot despite his ability to heal quickly.

Elena gulped, stupefied. What if he couldn't be her rock? "You promised me you'd never leave me," she grabbed his hand in desperation, "the loss is both ours. We should deal with it together."

Damon pulled back, distancing himself, "I don't know if I can. Together, what does that even mean? I will always be your second choice now, don't you see?"

"I was never happy to make those choices, you know that," Elena stated morosely, but urgently, seeing that he'd climbed out of bed and had grabbed his shoes, "where are you going?"

The dark haired vampire shook his head, "I can't think about this right now Elena. My brother is dead and I don't want to rely on Katherine to sort everything for me."

"Damon, no, at least wait till you're sure you're healed all right," she blurred in front of him. There was a fear at the root of her actions. What if Damon went off with Katherine after going to meet her?

"The issue won't wait, will it?" He pointed out.

"Right. I'm coming with you," she called, despite having promised herself that she will not look at Stefan's body again for the heartache it would cause. "And I'm going to get the car keys while you go down the basement for some blood to make sure you're better. Then I'll drive," she asserted, choosing to take some control over the situation.

Damon halted to bring his palm up to her cheek, looking into her eyes sorrowfully, but with the tenderness that characterised his feelings towards her. He could never resist her doe eyes, her plaintive look, the features that were so Katherine, but not quite. His throat constricted with unreleased emotion, but he didn't take pain as a sign to part, he's always been strangely masochistic that way. The consummate tenderness in his eyes was infatuating and Elena's mouth fell open in pure admiration. How could he elicit these goose bumps she had all over her flesh with just a feather-light touch? She drew closer, her hands resting on his hard chest, letting herself fall into him till he wrapped a hand around her lower back in fear she'd fall.

Then she looked up so she could meet his lips gently, but stormily, holding onto him tightly as if never wanting to let go. It wasn't the time, as they were both acutely aware by the ache in their souls that bereavement left. They parted reluctantly, but their strong pull towards each other remained. He closed his eyes, relishing her closeness, her breath of his skin, her hair tickling him slightly and the consolation of the moment.

"I'm not ready for this," Elena whispered, "I'm not ready to see him being put in a casket."

"It needs to be done," he took her hand with trembling hands and led her out the room.

Tbc


	5. Examen

Chapter 5: Examen

The Mystic Falls scoobies were not unfamiliar with organising a private funeral all by themselves, just for themselves and in a way that was the most obscure, and with consequences undetected by the other residents of the town as much as possible, whether it was via compulsion or getting rid of evidence. Katherine and Rebekah took care of everything this time and all it was to remain was to stand around in the tomb the older vampires had placed Stefan in and say good bye, perhaps a few words if anyone wanted. Kol was outside, playing guard, not too interested in the ceremony, but he would allow his sister to pay her respects if she so wanted.

Elena didn't dare to look in the tomb's direction. She was concentrating on the small gathering of people before her. Not many of them left, but they still grounded her somewhat to Mystic Falls, while another invisible force dragged her away, sensing that Damon could not bare to suffer his home town at the moment. He had his arm round her shoulders as they stood a little apart from the rest of them, Katherine, Rebekah, Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline, Liz, Meredith, Matt and Tyler. It felt like the two of them were in their own little globule, hearts wrenched to an extent surreally nothing hurt anymore.

Jeremy eyed his sister wearily, in half mind to step over to her, but feeling how it would've been wrong stepping into the circle of their bubble. He was losing her fast and it had nothing to do with her dying or becoming a vampire. His sister belonged to Damon now, and if he was honest with himself he would've had to admit that it had been like that for quite a while now. But it was okay, he knew one thing for sure, that Elena would be safe with Damon, he was stronger than anyone he could ever think of. At the moment though, understandibly for sure, it seemed like he was leaning with some of his weight on Elena. Jeremy noted slightly perplexed that Damon was pale. Very pale, perhaps like he had been when Jeremy found him wandering about at the Gone with the Wind showing. So that's what losing a dear sibling felt like, Jeremy shuddered.

Caroline was grinding a bouquet of white lilies in her hand, stems almost mashed to a pulp, having forgotten to set them down with the rest of the flowers on the top of the casket already placed into the wall of the little building, but not walled up yet. "Rebekah tells me that one day I will snap. That no vampire has ever existed without the thirst taking over them long enough to finish a life, that living like Stefan did is fallacious and suicidal. That I will have a phase where even if not like a ripper, but I will shut all that's human out and the animal in me will make up for lost time. I don't want to believe this. But even if it's true, I am thankful that it was Stefan who was around when it came to learning how to be a vampire without the dreadful and unspeakable side. Thank you Stefan, for being there for me," she nodded in Elena's direction, signalling that she was finished, wondering if her friend was going to say a few words seeing as herself and Bonnie were done, the only ones who had ventured to speak.

Elena felt people's eyes directed at herself, all worrying and wondering what her reaction to her loss would be and how it would play out. But all she wanted to do was run away from it all. However, the brunette found she was physically hindered to blur out or even move as Damon was heavily leaning on her, head bent, lumbering, shoulders hunched, legs bending.

"Watch out." Caroline said sharply, but with a voice still low in regard of the situation, then stepped over quickly to their side taking hold of Damon's other arm somewhat reluctantly in her surprisal at her sire's apparent loss of strength, "I just..I wasn't sure if he was going to fall down," she explained to Elena.

As if prompted by her words, Damon slid down between them and the two girls had no choice but to let him kneel on the floor, limbs weak, head still drooping, eyes closing. Elena sat down next to him, letting his forehead lean against her shoulder. "Damon." She prompted him, tilting his face towards her. The older vampire moaned, eliciting a concerned, "what's wrong with him?" from her.

"Are you serious?" Caroline questioned Meredith when she hurried over to raise Damon's arm and take his pulse.

"Look, I know quite a lot about vampire anatomy actually, which includes what heartbeat would be normal. And this one right now is faster, almost like a human's, but very weak. He seems colder than natural for a vampire as well. I would say those are signs of shock, but well, do you guys get shocks at all?" She looked at all the undead, particularly at the original.

"I thought you said you knew quite a lot about vampire anatomy," Caroline returned.

"I'm fine.." Damon stirred, pushing himself up, "I'm fine," he hurried to get out of their immediate reach and promptly threw up the blood Elena told him to have just before they left the Salvatore house.

"I didn't know that was even possible," Meredith admitted reluctantly.

Elena moved to hold onto Damon once more, even though he was standing, on somewhat shaky legs. "I'm going to take him home." She led him towards the entrance.

"Wait." Bonnie stood abruptly in front of them. "Let me." The witch looked at Elena to acquire her approval before taking a hold of Damon's other arm the same way as Caroline did earlier. Kol raised his eyebrows at them outside, but readily opened the car door for the ladies like a gentleman. Damon having been eased into the passenger seat, Bonnie took hold of Elena, "I needed the contact to scope him out. I should be able to sense if there's something wrong," she lowered her voice as if it would've been possible to speak so quiet the vampires wouldn't hear, "he's going to be all right Elena. I think it is the impact of losing his brother and perhaps a little residual vervain in his system. Make him rest," she gave her friend a witchy advice with a sad smile.

Elena hugged her, nodded at Caroline and Jeremy and took her place by the steering wheel to speed out the cemetery. "I'm not going home," Damon asserted firmly, although his head was still leaning back against the backrest.

"I need to take care of you if you're not willing to do it for yourself," Elena scolded him.

"No, Elena. I can't go back there. I won't go back there. Too many memories. Please don't make me. A hundred years or so, perhaps we could talk about it, but not now."

The young vampire gulped. She had similar feelings. "My place then?"

"I was meaning the whole town," he said quietly.

The young woman took a deep breath, "where then?" She asked guardedly, even though she already guessed the answer.

"I hear Paris has an amazing night life at this time of year."

Elena's eyes narrowed, her thoughts transfixed on the allure of the idea. She didn't say anything, but turned onto the road leading out of town. It was what he needed, it was what both of them needed. A fresh start in the city of love.

The End.


End file.
